The St. Petersburg Times and several other media organizations analyzed 175,010 Florida ballots that were cast but not counted during last year's presidential election.
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Confusing ballot instructions
In 41 counties, the instruction “Vote for Group” suggested it was okay to cast more than one vote for president. Thousands of voters did just that. In 24 other counties some confusing variation appeared.
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 11, 2001
108,762 LOST VOTES in counties with misleading directions
SUMMARY: In addition to "Vote for Group," some counties had another instruction: "Do not vote for more than the number indicated for each office." This suggested there were races where more than one vote was appropriate, which is not the case. All races required only one vote. Voters seemed to have no problem with the other races, where the instructions said “Vote for One.” Statewide, the biggest concentrations of lost “overvotes” were from the 10,308 people who chose both Gore and Buchanan and the 10,302 who chose Gore and Libertarian candidate Harry Browne. Nearly 9,000 people chose both Gore and Bush.
In many cases, voters were so puzzled they marked their ballots for not one, not two, but three or four candidates. All told, 83,755 people who overvoted for president included Gore among their choices, while 34,957 did the same for Bush. Election officials are recommending a change in Florida law that would tell voters “Vote for One” in the presidential race.
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